{"id":33951,"date":"2024-12-23T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/?p=33951"},"modified":"2024-12-23T18:13:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T15:13:39","slug":"nft-scammers-hit-with-22-million-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/nft-scammers-hit-with-22-million-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"NFT Scammers Hit with $22 Million Penalty!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two 23-year-olds from California, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, have been arrested and charged with defrauding investors of over <strong>$22 million<\/strong> in <strong>crypto assets<\/strong> through a <strong>NFT rug pull<\/strong>. The two face <strong>fraud charges<\/strong> after allegedly promoting and abandoning various <strong>NFT<\/strong> and <strong>digital asset<\/strong> projects, misleading investors with false claims and unfulfilled promises.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>United States Department of Justice<\/strong> announced that <strong>Hay<\/strong> and <strong>Mayo<\/strong> were charged with conspiracy to commit <strong>wire fraud<\/strong>, two counts of <strong>wire fraud<\/strong>, and one count of <strong>stalking<\/strong>. They allegedly misled investors with false <strong>roadmaps<\/strong> and made <strong>materially false<\/strong> statements about the projects, ultimately abandoning them after raising millions from unsuspecting backers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_71 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/nft-scammers-hit-with-22-million-penalty\/#Misleading_NFT_Projects\" title=\"Misleading NFT Projects\">Misleading NFT Projects<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/nft-scammers-hit-with-22-million-penalty\/#Fraudulent_Tactics_Across_Multiple_Projects\" title=\"Fraudulent Tactics Across Multiple Projects\">Fraudulent Tactics Across Multiple Projects<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Misleading_NFT_Projects\"><\/span>Misleading NFT Projects<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>indictment<\/strong> claims that the duo promoted the <strong>Vault of Gems NFT<\/strong> project as the &#8220;first NFT project pegged to a hard asset.&#8221; However, after raising funds, they abandoned the project, leaving investors with nothing. Prosecutors also claimed they made <strong>threats<\/strong> when someone tried to expose their fraudulent activities.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Justice Department<\/strong> stated that the two harassed a <strong>project manager<\/strong> who attempted to expose their role in the <strong>Faceless NFT<\/strong> project. The scammers reportedly used intimidation tactics to conceal their involvement, falsely claiming others as the project&#8217;s owners.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Fraudulent_Tactics_Across_Multiple_Projects\"><\/span>Fraudulent Tactics Across Multiple Projects<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The charges cover multiple <strong>digital asset<\/strong> projects, including <strong>Vault of Gems<\/strong>, <strong>Faceless<\/strong>, <strong>Sinful Souls<\/strong>, <strong>Clout Coin<\/strong>, <strong>Dirty Dogs<\/strong>, <strong>Uncovered<\/strong>, <strong>MoonPortal<\/strong>, <strong>Squiggles<\/strong>, and <strong>Roost Coin<\/strong>. The <strong>Department of Justice<\/strong> has vowed to work with <strong>law enforcement<\/strong> to combat fraud in the <strong>crypto<\/strong> and <strong>NFT<\/strong> space, which has been a target for fraudulent actors seeking to exploit new technologies for financial gain.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>You can also freely share your thoughts and comments about the topic in the comment section. Additionally, don\u2019t forget to follow us on our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/coinengineernews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Telegram,\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CoinEngineer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coinengineers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0channels for the latest\u00a0<a title=\"News\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\">news<\/a>\u00a0and updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two 23-year-olds from California, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, have been arrested and charged with defrauding investors of over $22 million in crypto assets through a NFT rug pull. The two face fraud charges after allegedly promoting and abandoning various NFT and digital asset projects, misleading investors with false claims and unfulfilled promises. The United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":30641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,657,2],"tags":[10391,10399,1744,5760,10395,10389,10396,10392,10393,10397,3772,6079,103,10398,971,10394,10390],"class_list":["post-33951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-news","category-en","category-news","tag-22-million","tag-criminal-activities","tag-crypto-assets","tag-digital-assets","tag-faceless-nft","tag-fraud-charges","tag-fraudulent-projects","tag-gabriel-hay","tag-gavin-mayo","tag-harassment","tag-justice-department","tag-law-enforcement","tag-nft","tag-project-roadmap","tag-scam","tag-vault-of-gems","tag-wire-fraud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NFT Scammers Hit with $22 Million Penalty! - Coin Engineer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/nft-scammers-hit-with-22-million-penalty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NFT Scammers Hit with $22 Million Penalty! - Coin Engineer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two 23-year-olds from California, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, have been arrested and charged with defrauding investors of over $22 million in crypto assets through a NFT rug pull. 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